Taking%20Your%20Business%20to%20the%20Internet

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Taking Your Business to the Internet
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The Internet is one of the fastest growing
mediums for businesses today, yet most businesses
are not yet taking advantage of it.
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Advantages

• Increased Exposure

• More people can find you

• What you do

• Who you are

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Advantages

• Increased revenue potential
• Larger coverage area
• Larger customer base
• Reduced cost (customer service)

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Advantages

• Customer Service
• Provide directions to your brick and mortar store
• Information about products
• Customer convenience
• Parts and service
• Appointment scheduling

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Reasons for not having a web presence
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Not technically savvy

• Does not know where to start
• Knows nothing about computers
• Knows even less about the Internet
• Intimidated

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No staff

• No one to maintain a web site
• No one available to handle shipping, etc.

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Too Costly

• Technology can be expensive
• May not be able to justify ROI

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Determining if your business can benefit from an
Internet presence
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Take Inventory of your business model
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Do you have a product that can be easily sold
over the internet?

• Too Big?
• Too Small?
• Intangible?
• Is it shippable?

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Do you have a supporting product that could be
sold over the Internet?

• Parts?
• Repair depot?
• Accessories?

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Can you benefit from a non-profitable Internet
presence?

• Appointments or reservations?
• Provide customer information
• Other services that could reduce the number of
  routine phone calls that could free up staff for
  sales?

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Determine your website goalsWhat do you want it
to for you?
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Expand to new geographical areas

• Other states?
• Other cities?
• International?

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Improve customer service

• Quicker response
• Improve convenience
• Reduce cost

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Expansion in the local area

• Making more people aware of your presence.

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Is it going to be a profit center?

• Do you expect your website to return a profit?
• Can it reduce costs?

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What is the competition doing?

• Do they have an Internet presence?

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You have decided that your business can benefit
from a web presenceSo what now?
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Calculate your cost

• Resources you will need

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Someone to do the work

• Staff
• Contractors
• Do it yourself

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Domain Name

• What are you going to call it?
• Should be short
• Easy to remember
• Easy to type

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Some place to put the domain (website)

• Hosting service

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If you are going to be selling merchandise

• Credit Card merchant account
• Secure web services (certificate)
• Shopping cart
• Advertising

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Staff or contracting

• Staff person 30k 50k
• Contracting 25 - 50/hour
• Consider requesting bids on a job basis
• Pay per hour only for support services or
  consider a monthly contract price
• The hidden cost of doing it yourself

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Domain Registration

• 15.00/year on average

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Hosting services

• Cost
• 4.95 - 19.95
• What to look for
• References
• Bandwidth limitationsdo they have additional
  charges or over use?

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• What other services are available?
• How much disk space is provided
• Up time guarantees
• Support options
• What will they do
• What will they not do (or charge extra for)

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Credit card merchant accounts

• If you already have a brick and mortar business
  you probably already have one.
• Make sure it supports internet sales some dont
  
• Do they have a web interface that you can link to
  or is it POS only

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• Check for any exclusions for internet sales or
  extra charges
• Internet sales usually have a larger percentage
  charge and a higher transaction fee
• There may be additional gateway charges

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• If you dont have one you will have to get one
• Sign up fees
• Minimum monthly fees
• Discount rates
• 2.17 and up

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• Transaction fees
• 25 - 30
• Gateway processing fees (a gateway may or may not
  be required)
• Around 30.00/monthly

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Secure website certificate

• You must have a secure certificate for accepting
  orders over the internet.
• Must be 128-bit encryption
• Various vendors supply them
• Verisign
• Thawte
• Renewed on a yearly basis
• 70 - 400/year fees

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If you are selling products where you want to
encourage users to purchase more than one item
per visit, you will need to have a shopping cart
system.
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• There are a number on the market
• Free (open source) to 300 or more
• Make sure they provide interfaces to various
  merchant account vendors
• Are they customizable?
• Can you maintain them, or do you need someone
  else to do that?

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• Some hosting services provide them
• May not be customizable
• May be extra charage

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Promotional considerations Just because you
build it, they will not come
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• Like any business model, you have to build in
  promotional costs
• The truth about search engines
• Most now have a fee based inclusion model
• Paid inclusions run 30 - 100 per year
• You have to submit your site to search engines.
• Free search engine listings can take up to 6
  months for inclusions.
• Getting a good listing, requires an effort.

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• Free Advertising
• Letterheads
• Business Cards
• Flyers
• Newsletters
• Subject matter lists
• Word of mouth

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First things first

• Define your business model and expectations
  (including budget)
• Select a domain namemake sure it is available

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• Review hosting options
• What do they cost
• What do they support (languages, etc)
• What support do they provide
• Resolve any credit card issues
• Select software and who is going to maintain it

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• Select a hosting service
• Install secure services
• Build the site
• Promote the site
• Periodically score card the site